Prismatic
by only-more-love
Summary: Fifty sentences about Booth and Brennan - together and as individuals.


**Title: **Prismatic {COMPLETE} [PG-13]

**Characters**: Seeley Booth, Temperance Brennan

**Summary**: Fifty sentences about Booth and Brennan - together and as individuals.

**Spoilers**: Everything through_ The Santa in the Slush_ is fair game.

**Rating**: PG-13 or T

**Disclaimer**: Bones and its characters belong to FOX, not me. This piece of writing is purely mean to entertain. No copyright infringement is intended.

**What you need to know**: Many moons ago, some anonymous individual had this kicked off this site; I've decided to repost it. There's a writing challenge community at LJ called 1sentence, and the idea is that you claim a pairing and write fifty separate sentences about them in response to fifty separate prompts. I'm not officially doing the challenge because not every sentence I've written focuses on a pairing, though a lot of them do. But I'm using the prompts because I like the premise. What follows may or may not be considered a "story" in the truest sense of the word; if that bothers you, don't read this. I consider what follows to be a prism through which to view two characters I love-together and as individual people.

Let me know if you have any questions.

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01. Comfort

"I'm sorry you had to kill someone; I know you hate that," she said, eyes soft, mouth turned down at the corners, and even though she'd shot him, Booth's hands flexed with the desire to pull her into one of those not-guy-hugs he hoped she'd never call him on; he settled for a smile and a murmured, "Yeah, he had it coming."

02. Kiss

A kiss is just two mouths meeting, she tells herself-a social ritual engaged in even by bonobos-but as Brennan retreats, releasing Booth's lapels, something clicks into place inside her and she rushes to find the right words of denial.

03. Soft

Booth knows what her lips feel like now and that knowledge makes him want to learn the rest of her secrets with the tips of his fingers and the flat of his tongue, but he can't do that to her: he won't make her another place to fall.

04. Pain

As soon as he saw the charred skeleton leaning against Charlie Kent's headstone, his gut told him the case would be an avalanche, but as his cheek stung with the reminder of a grieving mother's torment, Booth silently accepted it as his due.

05. Potatoes

She never orders her own fries, but during lunch at their diner one sunny Friday she confirms with their waitress that they aren't fried in beef tallow; after that Booth always makes sure he leaves enough uneaten for her to swipe a few off his plate.

06. Rain

The ground is rain-slicked and steep, but she refused to take the hand he offered her; when she slips, falls, and ends up with mud caked all over her jumpsuit, he turns his face to the charcoal sky and laughs-until she yanks him down beside her, and smiling, shoves cold mud underneath his windbreaker and the collar of his shirt.

07. Chocolate

She licks a spot of chocolate frosting off her bottom lip, and he wants to spread her naked across the table and eat the rest of the cake off her body; she's turned him into a fucking cliché, but God help him, he doesn't care.

08. Happiness

With her brother and father beside her, Brennan finally surrenders to the warmth blossoming in her chest and vows to avoid thoughts of tomorrow-for at least one full minute.

09. Telephone

"What are you wearing?" he asks, and the words come out more raw than he intended; "Nothing" she replies, a smile in her voice, and Booth gasps, shifts the phone to his left hand, and sends up a mute prayer: _Thank You for technology._

10. Ears

"Bones?" he says, and she holds herself still, willing her breath to remain steady as she feigns sleep for reasons she cannot articulate; "I love you, I need you, I won't leave you till the choice is out of my hands," he finally whispers into her hair, and she knows he thinks she's asleep because it's late and he's never uttered that word to her before.

11. Name

"If you call me baby, sweetheart, or any other infantilizing endearment, I promise I will break every bone in your body," she said, brows lowered dangerously; he wrapped a strand of her hair around his index finger and tugged gently before leaning in and whispering, "I don't need to call you any of those things-I already call you Bones."

12. Sensual

"Mmm, this is so good," Booth mumbles around a mouthful of his burger, eyes alight, and despite knowing full well the environmental impact of meat production, Brennan can't repress a smile at his enthusiastic show of appreciation.

13. Death

Sometimes when their apartment is quiet except for the creaks, murmurs, and sighs that buildings and bodies make, Booth lies awake and contemplates death; on one hand he wants to go first because he can no longer fathom a world without her in it, while on the other hand he worries about how she'll handle being left behind again-their years together have changed them both in ways they could never have predicted-and he fears she doesn't know how to be alone, really alone, anymore.

14. Sex

Sex is bodies, sweat, and desire, but as Booth sweeps Brennan's legs out from under her and pins her to the mat, panting, it isn't her body he craves: it's her soul.

15. Gift

He's walking home from the gym one Saturday afternoon when he sees the dress in a store window; the fabric slips through his fingers like a dream, the color shifting blue-green-gray like her eyes, and even though it's too expensive and he doesn't know if it'll ever be appropriate for him to give it to her, he buys it in her size.

16. Hands

There are twenty-seven bones in the human hand, and the same hands that can wield a gun with lethal accuracy touch her with more gentleness than she's ever known before; it is the latter fact Brennan clings to in the face of every fear and doubt her mind manufactures whenever they are apart.

17. Smile

"I love you," Booth says one morning, and she can tell from the patient look he gives her that he doesn't expect her to say it back, but she's wondered for some time now what those words would taste like, so she touches his arm and says, "I love you, too," and the lingering sweetness in her mouth and in his smile convince her of the truth of it.

18. Forever

Eternity is for fairy tales and fanatics, but as she brushes her fingers over Booth's graying hair and watches his eyes move beneath his eyelids, she cannot help but wish they had at least a thousand more years together.

19. Devotion

The air is free of incense, and not a single wick flickers and burns, but in the darkness of their bedroom, the words they whisper and the way their bodies bend and kneel take on the spirit of sacrament.

20. Blood

Booth's face is bloody and bruised, but he's alive, and her relief is so great she wants to vomit, throw herself into his arms, and hit him for letting himself be abducted in the first place; logic and decorum dictate otherwise, so she settles for untying him and letting her eyes communicate what she won't allow her body to say.

21. Taste

"You're definitely… a fully developed man," Brennan said, with a funny little hitch in her voice, and the combination of her words and the flash of tongue when she took one last sip of her milkshake hit him square in the gut; if it were any other woman, he'd swear she was flirting with him.

Timeline: During the final scene of_ The Player Under Pressure._

22. Life

She never comes right out and tells him how difficult this case is for her, or how much she identifies with Andy Taylor; then again, she doesn't have to – he sees it in the careful way she cradles the baby, and when she hands him over to Carol and Jim Grant, knowing they will love him in a way her foster parents didn't love her, it's too much, and Booth has to look away.

Timeline: Set during _The Baby in the Bough_.

23. Weakness

An earring, a plastic pig, a Smurf, a detour for her brother, an escape for her father – these are some of the things he's given her, and all he really wants in return is the smile that's lit her face right now.

24. Wind

They sat on a bench, sipping from their iced coffees, and a welcome breeze swept toward them, relieving some of the summer heat; as it slid its fingers through Brennan's dark hair in a way he couldn't, Booth closed his eyes against a flash of jealousy.

25. Sun

As she glances back at Booth over her shoulder, Brennan notes he's squinting against the glare, his sunglasses forgotten somewhere; his eyes are somehow warmer in the sunlight, and the part of her she tries so hard to ignore warms and softens in response, even as she scrambles to keep the evidence from showing on her face.

26. Wonder

"Sometimes I think you're really very nice," Brennan says, eyes steady and expression gentle, and Booth silently wonders if there will ever be a right time for them to share something beyond coffee, cases, and casual conversation.

Timeline: Set during _The Verdict in the Story_.

27. Soliloquy

"Making love – that's when two people become one," Booth says, and Brennan's mind swirls with unvoiced questions like, "Do you know this from experience, and if so, will you show me?"

Timeline: Set during _Death in the Saddle_.

28. Question

When Booth calls home, his mother picks up on the second ring, and it's two seconds after theyve discussed Parker that she asks, "Are you dating anyone?"; an image of Brennan flashes through his head, but that's stupid because they definitely aren't dating.

29. Whiskey and rum

Brennan watches Booth knock back a shot of whiskey, his throat working as he swallows, and she has to restrain herself from chasing the drink with her tongue.

30. Moon

He's made love to her a thousand times in his dreams, but after the first time in his bed, Booth lies awake next to Brennan and watches her skin shift from white to silver, unwilling to fall asleep too soon and wake to find it was all just something conjured by his sleeping brain.

31. Completion

Brennan flips off the light on the nightstand, but Booth switches it back on in spite of the way she rolls her eyes at him, because at the end, when she comes, he needs to see her face.

32. War

Though her feet have trod ground in countries rent by war, sometimes Brennan thinks the most dangerous journey she's ever undertaken is the one that ends with her fingers meshed with Booth's.

33. Natural

After weighing the pros and cons and considering the geometry and cartography of partnership vs. romantic entanglement, it feels unexpectedly natural the night Brennan fills her lungs with Booth's breath.

34. Breathing

When Parker was still a baby, Booth would wake in the middle of the night just to make sure he was still breathing; he does the same thing now – with the beautiful scientist who dreams by his side.

35. Walking

Brennan's strides are long and authoritative – like she always knows exactly where she's going – but Booth knows better now; sometimes she's just looking for him, wanting to rest her head on his shoulder until she figures out her next move.

36. Heaven

One morning Booth catches Brennan sneaking looks at him from behind her oatmeal, and when he can't stand it anymore he lowers the paper and barks, "What?" and then she frowns at his tone and says, "I love you" for the first time, leaving him speechless.

37. Sickness

Over the years of their partnership, Booth has borne being shot, tortured, and blown up with mute stoicism, but at the first sign of the flu he takes to bed and whines about his aching body until Brennan has to hide a smile behind her hand.

38. Home

The cold makes him ache sometimes; Booth does his best to ignore the pain, but at home, after dinner, Brennan silently pulls his feet into her lap and gently kneads them with her warm fingers until he sighs and closes his eyes.

39. Hair

He loves it when it's damp and wavy, when it's restrained in a ponytail, and even when she frowns and tells him it's getting too long and needs at least a trim, but as Booth helps Brennan shave her head because she can no longer stand the clumps in her hairbrush, he meets her shimmering eyes in the mirror and says, "I love you – with or without hair."

40. Blessing

Every summer they rent a small cabin in the Catskill Mountains: she spends five days there alone, and then he joins her for another week; the first summer after her death, Booth almost decides to skip the annual trip, but then he goes, and as the wind whispers through hemlock and maple, he closes his eyes and thinks he hears Brennan's laughter.

41. Share

Booth's mouth twitches in a smile as Brennan sighs and drags her spoon through her sludgy oatmeal before eyeing his chocolate chip pancakes; he slides his plate in her direction: "You want a bite?" he asks, and she scowls and picks up her fork.

42. Jealousy

Though Brennan has never minded dining out alone, the moment she steps into Café Reynard and sees Booth laughing with an attractive blonde wearing a miniscule black dress, she turns and marches right back out again, her mouth filled with something dark and bitter.

43. Melody

As Booth folds his laundry one Sunday morning, he hums an 80s song; when he realizes it's _Girls Just Wanna Have Fun_, not even the memory of how that night ended can dim the smile that curves his mouth at the remembered image of his partner bouncing and singing on-stage.

44. Clouds

Time has taught Brennan to read Booth nearly as well as he reads her, so in moments when he is uncharacteristically quiet and a certain blank distance clouds his gaze, she sits patiently beside him and trusts that one day he'll tell her what's troubling him.

45. Fear

Booth snaps his phone shut and wrenches the steering wheel to the left, pulling the SUV into a sharp U-turn; "What is it?" Brennan asks, staring at his bloodless profile and flinching when he answers, "Parker's been in an accident."

46. Balcony

They're sitting on the balcony of their hotel room on Paradise Island, enjoying the breeze coming off the ocean, when Brennan asks, "Do you want to have more children?" and with a pang of apprehension, she wonders if Booth's answer and her reaction to it will be what brings their fledgling relationship to the natural death she's always expected it to have.

47. Breaking

She no longer knows why they're fighting, but she's just so angry that she doesn't dam the words: "We have nothing in common; I'm brains, and you're heart, and I always knew we would never work," she says, and when Booth slams out of her apartment and doesn't return that night, Brennan begins to understand what people mean when they talk about heartbreak.

48. Bonds

While Booth is in the kitchen getting coffee for both of them, Brennan examines a photograph that sits on his desk; Parker, Booth, and two men who can only be his father and brother smile back at her, and though she still doesn't want children, an odd ache fills her chest as she takes in the family resemblance that is etched into the faces of three generations of Booth men.

49. Weddings

They never marry – but that doesn't stop them from bickering, laughing, and loving until the day Booth whispers, "Bones," and closes his eyes for the last time.

50. Quiet

She misses him most at night, when the world is quiet and her hands are empty of work, and she wishes she could believe what he believed until the very end – they will meet again one day.


End file.
